By David Futrelle
As you may have heard, special prosecutor Bob Mueller dropped a little bomb today — charging 13 Russians and several Russian organizations with a conspiracy to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and support the candidacy of one Donald Trump.
It was, the indictment claims, a massive operation, involving upwards of 80 people working out of a Russian troll farm called The Internet Research Agency, not only creating fake internet identities to spread misinformation and anti-Hillary propaganda but also organizing real world rallies here in the US.
The indictment is kind of a big deal. It sets out the scope, and provides some key details, of the Russian attempt to sway the election here. If Mueller can prove anyone in the Trump campaign wittingly colluded with this Russian campaign, they are in deep trouble. Tick tock, as they say.
In the alternative world of the alt-right MAGAsphere, though, Mueller’s indictments today are actually good news for Trump.
https://twitter.com/JohnCooper0610/status/964570270509002752
🔴Deputy AG Rosenstein Confirms Russians Did Not Effect The Outcome of The Election: "No allegation in the indictment of any effect on the outcome of the election."pic.twitter.com/tbFHu2TLSF
— Saving America (@SavingAmerica4U) February 16, 2018
https://twitter.com/RealJack/status/964591593847246848
Even Julian Assange jumped aboard the “no collusion” train.
Mueller "troll farm" indictment today
– explicitly states no collusion
– does not mention WikiLeaks
– states trolls intent to support Trump & Sanders, oppose Clinton, Cruz
– states trolls intent on anti-Trump AND pro-Trump rallies post electionhttps://t.co/uMxBAwOeOY— Defend Assange Campaign (@DefendAssange) February 16, 2018
The notion that today’s indictment somehow “clears” Trump and his pals is of course absurd. Insofar as it is based on anything at all, it is based on a gross misunderstanding or deliberate misrepresentation of a couple of remarks from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s announcement of the indictments today.
Rosenstein, clearly choosing his words carefully, noted in his remarks that “there is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity.”
Nothing in this statement suggests that there was “no collusion.” Rosenstein is simply noting that no Americans are being charged with collusion “in this indictment.”
Mueller isn’t closing up shop just yet, and we can expect more indictments to come. Some of which will, I suspect, involve charges against more than a few Americans for knowingly conspiring with the Russian election-meddlers.
Rosenstein also noted that “there is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election.”
Again, that’s not PROOF that there was no effect, or anything like that. The DOJ has made clear in the past that it is not their job to prove or disprove that the Russian meddling led to Trump’s victory, merely that Russians did in fact meddle. The DOJ is professionally agnostic on the issue of effect.
Don’t expect any of this to penetrate the MAGA mind. Indeed, alt-lite conspiracy-monger and alleged wannabe adulterer Jack Posobiec is even charging “The Left” with ignoring reality. (A bit rich coming from a former Pizzagate promoter.)
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/964604360935329793
Others in the MAGAsphere fantasize that Mueller’s indictments today will mean bad news for one particular woman they are not terribly fond of.
13 RUSSIAN#MuellerTime just laid the foundation for prosecuting…
👉HILLARY 👈
Notice how charges included DESTRUCTION OF EVIDENCE?
Umm…who destroyed her phones, servers and emails?? 😉😆
😎🚔#HillaryIsGoingToPrison🚔👌#MAGA #QAnon #TheFive #Hannity #ObamaGate #Mueller pic.twitter.com/f9RN5B8u0K
— Boca Vista (@bocavista2016) February 16, 2018
This MAGAhead, meanwhile, took a certain comfort in the President’s tiny, upwardly pointed, thumbs.
https://twitter.com/BasedMonitored/status/964594625460752384
You may recall another American president with a penchant for aiming certain fingers upward.
That didn’t work out so well for him.
Manafort, Gates, Papadopoulos, Flynn and Pinedo would beg to differ.
I wonder why the MAGA tribe keeps avoiding the wider question “why is Russia so in favour of Trump and so against Clinton?”
Oh, never mind, I think I’ve got it.
The Posobiec story is hilarious. I just wonder what he expected while going on a dating app that’s supposed make the online experience better for women (e.g.men cannot message women first, only the woman can) with anti-creep measures. Of course you’re going to get banned…what a jackass.
Just yesterday I saw a tweet saying that the shooting in Florida was the perfect diversion the left needed to distract from the news that Obama and Clinton were the real colluders.
They are really going to be surprised if Trump and/or Pence are indicted, aren’t they.
“Buh-buh-but! You said…!”
Said nothin’. You assumed. :3
I wonder if these idiots are going to realise that they are the reason that America is turning into a failed state.
@gijoel
B-but wite
Agreed on everything, but I’m not sure why the word ‘even’ is before Julian Assange’s name. Assange is an obvious Russian asset – he was offered leaked intel on the Russian government, but refused to publish it on Wikileaks.
Honestly, this seems to be standard practice with this sort of investigation, first going after the comparatively unimportant people and using the information and evidence gained to build a stronger case against those at the top.
Another form of more subtle denial I’ve seen from conservatives is to admit that the Russians may have tried some low level interference, but it was only 13 people and $1.25m so compared to the thousands of people working on the election and the $2.3bn spent on campaigning, it can’t have had any serious effect.
The best answer to that argument is that 19 hijackers and $500k was all it took to score a huge defeat against the entire US defense apparatus on 9/11. Exploiting the weaknesses in relatively open societies is a proven path to causing massive damage with limited resources.
Once again, Robert Mueller has made my day.
Good to see David is back !
Also, good to see that Mueller is steadily advancing. The midterms election are still the most important thing to start defanging that administration, but seeing Trump defeated is definitely something the USA need.
It’s really nice to see some familiar peeps here again!
@Paradoxical Intention, I’ve missed your posts. Hope you’re doing well ?
Here’s a random pic of Mei-Mei’s tummy, just because:
http://i64.tinypic.com/25ivywl.jpg
Curly tummy!!! 🙂
Dude, I just donated to you again. I don’t care if it takes you a million years to feel better. Even if you never utter another word again, what you have done so far is enough.
Notice how numerologically fitting it is that the number of Russians involved in this just so happens to be the infamous 13. What are the odds of that? Are there really no coincidences in this life at all?
Well this made my day.
@Mei-Mei
Hi, kitty!
I bet every aristocrat goes through the same motions of denial before the beheading, so I’m not really surprised. It’s really just what they do, isn’t it.
@David
Glad to see you’re getting better.
I really do love this community <3 @Threff, you are a gem.
Oh, the pretzel logic of the MAGAnites is something to behold. I don’t even argue with them; I just wait patiently on my web watching and giggling because sooner or later, they’re all going to ensnare themselves with their deceit.
Lots of lovely familiar peeps showed up on this thread! Hi! *waves*
Mish,
Floofy kitty belly! Squeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Why do they keep trying to insinuate that’s Hilary who did the colluding with Russia to, um, lose the election?
David, great to see you back. I hope things continue to improve.
Paradoxy and Sinkable John are back!!!! *does Kermit happy arm flail*
Mooncustafer:
From what I understand the accusation is that both Democrats and Republicans tried to get dirt on the other side through these Russian contacts, and that it was going on for some time before the 2016 election. So, Trump’s hands can’t be any dirtier than Hillary’s here.
In their eyes it isn’t so bad that people lied about their Russian contacts because it was the Democrats who created the anti-Russia hysteria in the first place.